Competitive considerations: Weak Armour - Its cape is brittle and can crack and be shed, which allows it to move more easily and quickly. Illusion - The sparkles and psychic properties of its cape allow it to confuse the opponent and appear in a different form. No Guard - It uses its antennae to focus on the opponent and increase its accuracy. This restricts its own movement and allows it to be hit more easily.

High attack - 6 limbs, one set with large claws that allow the use of especially strong bug attacks (like Megahorn). A lean body that allows it to move easily. A large cape that helps it to defend itself.

Also, I know the sparkles would be a nightmare for spriting, but a less tedious shiny effect could definitely be used instead of the tiny dotted sparkle effect.

I don't know what's going on with the status of the legality of this submission because I've gotten conflicting messages from moderators and from the rest of the general community. For all of the talk about collaborations being perfectly allowable, they seem impossible given some peoples' absolutely strict and inflexible interpretation of some wording of the rules. Fortunately, I just got status as a PRC member, so regardless of how this goes, I will be starting discussion as soon as I get the chance to on the nature, intent, and clarity of the rules when it comes to such collaborations. For now, the only thing that I can do is post a Final Submission and see what happens.

Psycho Bug
Final Submission

And here is design and story material quoted from my two most recent posts on the design:

This submission was a collaboration. While I liked my design idea, my artistic skill is lacking, and so one of my friends decided to be really super cool and help me out by lending her artistic talents. She has requested that I link to her tumblr.

Ever since the idea of the move Psycho Boost was brought up as a potential risky Psychic STAB for our Riskymon, I wanted to see how it would go over to visually demonstrate its Psychic typing via imagery inspired by psychology rather than anything supernatural, so that's where I initially decided to make a Rorschach-Test-inspired design. As many of you may have seen earlier in the thread, my initial concept was to have the bug at the center of this Rorschach Test be inspired by a typical psychiatrist or psychologist, as though it were administering the test. However, when I posted my most recent concept sketches of what to do with Psycholobug's body, the most positive responses I got on #cap were actually for the joke image I drew of it in a straightjacket. At the same time, I was concerned that Psycholobug didn't visually inspire enough badassery, so I decided to run with the straightjacket idea, and Psycho Bug was born.

It is important to note that this straightjacket that Psycho Bug "wears" is not any external device. Rather, the flavor here is that Psycho Bug goes between periods of sanity and insanity, and during those periods of sanity, it wraps its own body and limbs in an adhesive silk, forming a sort of cocoon to prevent itself from harming itself or others during its not so sane periods. For a Psycho Bug with Weak Armor, its silk is not so effective, and each hit that it takes loosens the restraints of the cocoon. You will see this in future supporting artwork, where all four of its arms will be posed to attack.

As far as Illusion goes, I've needed to make absolutely no changes in the design to account for it. After all, the entire purpose of the Rorschach test is what you think you see, and the "wings" here have always been intended to be formed of an amorphous gaseous substance (think similar to Musharna's dream mist) that changes in shape as one would expect of a thick gas. It's no stretch to think that some Psycho Bugs would be able to manipulate this substance to form disguises and explore the true fears of their opponents.

What insect is this based on, you might ask? That is left intentionally ambiguous. The easiest answer is that it's something like a moth, as that's a typical answer given for the Rorschach Test being used above in its default depiction. However, I could see it being a lot of other things too. It bears some similarities to Shedinja, making cicada a reasonable guess. I also see it as somewhat cockroach-like in behavior in that people seem to fear it for its association with negative elements (insanity for Psycho Bug, filth or disease for cockroach) despite its non-malevolent nature. And then, of course, it's tempting to make an argument for it being a yellow jacket just because.

We now have some supporting artwork for Weak Armor! This is a link:
As I explained before, the idea is that Psycho Bug goes through periods of sanity and insanity. During its periods of sanity, it wraps itself up in an adhesive silk, forming a cocoon that looks like a straightjacket to protect itself from other and others from itself. Some Psycho Bugs, however, those with Weak Armor, don't do a great job of wrapping themselves up. Attacks against these Psycho Bugs loosen the restraints of the cocoon, damaging both Psycho Bug's defense against others and others' defense against Psycho Bug.

First off, I made it look more physical by giving it bigger, stronger arms and also a pair of legs. They are covered in armor padding that can break away, in reference to Weak Armor.
The antennae on its head are also a bit bigger and sharper. They look more like horns now so that it can actually utilize Megahorn.
The bottom of the main body is more curved instead of pointed because scarab beetles have rounded bodies.

So if you have anymore suggestions, better make them now since I'll be finishing this in about 24 hours.

aragornbird: I really loved the scarab without legs. Yours and KoA are my favourite and his doesn't have legs either. The cap doesn't have levitate, but it doesn't really need it. I like that change to the arms, they fit well with the stat spread. I would stick to your second design, keeping the change in the arms.

Good luck over the next few days, I'm liking your design, Koa and CBMeadow.

There are so many great designs here! A lot of these designs I would be very happy to see selected- I know I'm gonna have trouble with voting. Good luck to all the artists; this CAP's art has been fun to follow. :D

honestly, I don't like my concept very much, don't vote for me just because of the art please!

CAP Leader

Description
The obvious theme of this design is a bookworm. I wanted to express the Bug typing more along the lines of something like Shuckle, which is hard to peg to any particular kind of insect, but looks "bug-like" to me nonetheless. This bookworm has a similar aesthetic.

I envision this pokemon being discovered in game kinda like you discover Amoongus mistaking it for a pokeball, or like encountering Rotom when you interact with the TV set. In Pokemon, you come across all sorts of bookshelves and such -- well with this pokemon, when you are poking around a book shelf, I imagine the game giving some hint like, "One book looks like it is moving..." Then boom, "A CAP4 appeared!"

What seems to be pages of the book are actually prehensile appendages the bookworm uses to move, grab stuff, etc. Although it looks like it only has a few "pages", they are actually multiple thin folds packed together, so if the pokemon decides to fan its "pages", it has hundreds if the need arises.

The pokemon is known to be exceptionally intelligent, and uses its golden quill (which is rumored to be plucked from the tail of Ho-oh) to make strange markings on its pages when it encounters interesting situations. The markings are very similar to the shapes of Unown found on various runes, which has led to speculation that this pokemon is somehow tied to Unown and the dimension they come from.

Cover Symbols
Every bookworm has a distinct symbol on its cover, based on its IV's or PID, using the exact same formula as Unown (so it would work kinda like a mix between Unown and Spinda). Obviously we won't code this into our sim for CAP, but it's a fun flavor twist for this design and backstory. Here's an animation showing the cover symbols for A, B, C, and D. Although stylized to look like writing strokes, the symbol shapes should be familiar to any self-respecting pokenerd... ;-)

Click for larger animation​

On the main design, I put the Unown-inspired "C" on the cover, to stand for "Create-A-Pokemon". I guess I could have used "D" for DougJustDoug, or "R" for Risk or whatever -- but "C" is a cool-looking letter in Unownish (or whatever language it's called) and if I can put only one letter on the main design, I think that's as good as any other letter. There are technically 26 different versions of my CAP4 design. But I can only use one for the official submission -- so, "C" it is. If this design wins, I would expect every spriter to pick whatever symbol they like best for their sprite entry.

Closing Thoughts
Another interesting CAP art competition! I don't know about other artists, but I found this typing combo to be difficult to come up with original ideas. This bookworm idea was pretty much the only design to make it past the concept sketch stage for me. I've enjoyed seeing other artists' take on CAP4, and I look forward to seeing which one we choose!

IDEA
based on thisfucked up insect occurrence
only here the idea is the wasp stays up top and controls the caterpillar
the horn coming out of the worm's mouth is the stinger going through its brain
then i guess the psychic wasp controls it like a zombie
not exactly a symbiotic relationship going on here

Moderator

All right, I might as well post some form of opinion even though it's probably too late for it to change anything. Unfortunately, I'm basing this on the OP, so I'm sorry if I missed some designs.

There are a lot of very good submissions that I nonetheless feel either don't evoke the Psychic typing enough (if at all) or evoke it too blatantly/explicitly. Crystal balls are almost obnoxious to me. On the flip side, some of these designs look more like Poison-types or Steel-types than Psychic-types. I get that people are trying to account for the abilities, too, but I think that a few have accounted for them well enough that I can comment on this.

Because of all this, my favourite submissions (in terms of both design and aesthetic) so far are KoA's and Cartoons!'s. KoA's has the floating wings and the angel imagery, which captures all of the abilities without being as obnoxious about the Psychic typing as I think other designs are. I really like the whole "psychic link" thing going on with Cartoons!'s design as well, though maybe the abilities aren't as well-represented. At the very least, the context has a lot of precedent in real Pokémon, hence the design fits right in.

Some other designs I really like are Doran Dragon's, DougJustDoug's and Mos_Quitoxe's. Doran Dragon's is in the "obnoxious typing imagery" category, but imo it pulls it off better than others do, so I have to give it props. DougJustDoug's bookworm is just really amusing and outside the box, so I give it props as well. I know spriters in particular are afraid of Mos_Quitoxe's design, and I'm not sure I really see the Psychic typing in it, but it's still an extremely unique design and, again, props are to be had. nov's design is pretty cool, too, though I wonder if it's gone too far into humanoid territory.

I was going to draw up some supporting material, but I don't have time for that so I'll just submit this.

It's based on a scarab beetle, a very important symbol in Egyptian mythology. With its "third eye" this CAP can conjure up mirages to protect itself when it's in danger. However, it also has the ability to dispel illusions as well as create them. And of course, since its primary ability is Weak Armor, the protective parts of its body can break away allowing it to become much faster.

I looked through some Psychic types through out the gen and realized that a handful shared the "space" theme so I decided to go with a pest from outer space idea. Basically put, it's a bug type Pokemon like other psychic types with the space theme that's origin is unknown and is thought to be from outer space. It's also based off the idea that the species are pests that travels in swarms, but no one seems to be able to catch them in their act because of their psychic powers; they raid crops and leave a certain pattern behind, or raid live stocks to feed on fresh meat. The psychic powers it has is the reason why it has abilities and moves that seems like the bugs are using some sort of alien technology.

The shape of its arms was probably the most important part of this design imo. I designed it to look like those ray guns from old space movies.
-The silver part is hardened armor and the most fortified part of its armor meant for ripping through steel walls like some sort of space monster; I'm going to bullshit myself here and say I added this part mostly to give it the ability to learn Megahorn (if Escavalier can ram into things with its lance and count it as Megahorn, I guessed this can work too). The spikes protruding from the under side is used for climbing up or clinging on to surfaces it can stab into.
-The crystal like part is its source of its psychic powers. It can communicate to others by sending signals from it to the antennas. It is also used to produce different assortments of specially based beams/moves too. It is also used to shoot out psychic waves that cancels out its presence to living things nearby through mental manipulation, so they can successfully perform their "raids" without being disturbed. It can also project hallucinations of other Pokemon with this, successfully performing feats of Illusion. The fact that they get away soundly after raiding around is the reason why many people thought they were cloaking themselves until their psychic powers were discovered.

Their armor is a special type or armor that detaches itself from the body once it has been sufficiently damaged and would do no good. Although it comes off easily, under its old and battered shell is a lighter Weak Armor that has a fast regenerative properties that lets it restore its original defenses after time. It has a very powerful bite thanks to its fangs and powerful jaws and its eyes are capable of seeing in heat vision. At first I decided to give it horns but those designs did not work out so well so I went with the tube like antennas instead, to give it more of that alien body suit look; the armor design was also made with the body suit look in mind too. It has powerful legs capable of jumping and giving it lift, and also the mon has wings for flying its own weight+. Although they try to avoid being disturbed, if they decide to go after something or is threatened due to their "cloaking" failing, they will go at their opposition as if they are ready to take out everything in their way; they will go at their objective/opposition with No Guard and will continuously attack until they are done.

This submission was a collaboration. While I liked my design idea, my artistic skill is lacking, and so one of my friends decided to be really super cool and help me out by lending her artistic talents. I am still unclear on how she would like to be credited, as she is not a Smogon member, but I will update ASAP when I find out.
(EDIT: She has requested that I link to her tumblr.)

Ever since the idea of the move Psycho Boost was brought up as a potential risky Psychic STAB for our Riskymon, I wanted to see how it would go over to visually demonstrate its Psychic typing via imagery inspired by psychology rather than anything supernatural, so that's where I initially decided to make a Rorschach-Test-inspired design. As many of you may have seen earlier in the thread, my initial concept was to have the bug at the center of this Rorschach Test be inspired by a typical psychiatrist or psychologist, as though it were administering the test. However, when I posted my most recent concept sketches of what to do with Psycholobug's body, the most positive responses I got on #cap were actually for the joke image I drew of it in a straightjacket. At the same time, I was concerned that Psycholobug didn't visually inspire enough badassery, so I decided to run with the straightjacket idea, and Psycho Bug was born.

It is important to note that this straightjacket that Psycho Bug "wears" is not any external device. Rather, the flavor here is that Psycho Bug goes between periods of sanity and insanity, and during those periods of sanity, it wraps its own body and limbs in an adhesive silk, forming a sort of cocoon to prevent itself from harming itself or others during its not so sane periods. For a Psycho Bug with Weak Armor, its silk is not so effective, and each hit that it takes loosens the restraints of the cocoon. You will see this in future supporting artwork, where all four of its arms will be posed to attack.

As far as Illusion goes, I've needed to make absolutely no changes in the design to account for it. After all, the entire purpose of the Rorschach test is what you think you see, and the "wings" here have always been intended to be formed of an amorphous gaseous substance (think similar to Musharna's dream mist) that changes in shape as one would expect of a thick gas. It's no stretch to think that some Psycho Bugs would be able to manipulate this substance to form disguises and explore the true fears of their opponents.

What insect is this based on, you might ask? That is left intentionally ambiguous. The easiest answer is that it's something like a moth, as that's a typical answer given for the Rorschach Test being used above in its default depiction. However, I could see it being a lot of other things too. It bears some similarities to Shedinja, making cicada a reasonable guess. I also see it as somewhat cockroach-like in behavior in that people seem to fear it for its association with negative elements (insanity for Psycho Bug, filth or disease for cockroach) despite its non-malevolent nature. And then, of course, it's tempting to make an argument for it being a yellow jacket just because.

Also, we now have some supporting artwork for Weak Armor! This is a link:
As I explained before, the idea is that Psycho Bug goes through periods of sanity and insanity. During its periods of sanity, it wraps itself up in an adhesive silk, forming a cocoon that looks like a straightjacket to protect itself from other and others from itself. Some Psycho Bugs, however, those with Weak Armor, don't do a great job of wrapping themselves up. Attacks against these Psycho Bugs loosen the restraints of the cocoon, damaging both Psycho Bug's defense against others and others' defense against Psycho Bug.

This pokémon is based on a moth with characteristics of an amazonic shaman. It lives deep in the jungle and uses its antennae to emmit psychic waves that confuse any enemy that gets into its territory, so they won't notice its presence. However, it can sense good intentions and guide you in spiritual trips if you want.

My previous design didn't fit the abilities and stat spread, and I think that this one does better. Illusion doesn't need an explanation, the mon was built around it. Its exoexcheleton makes it possible to have Weak Armour, and No Guard, well...is there any way to include that into a design?

The power of love conquers all! This two-in-one Pokemon shares thoughts, emotions, and coordinate as if they had one mind and body. The idea being that they're hatched individually, but are telepathically linked to a 'soul mate' from birth, which they spend their lives seeking (through the help of psychic/wacko bug pheromone powers) until they find each other and that's when the evolution hits. I suppose the farther the two are separated at birth, the more powerfully their psychic powers develop as they struggle to locate each other amidst all the noise and confusion that would deign to keep them forever apart.

As far as the theme of this CAP goes, is there anything riskier you can do...than to dare to love?

Supporting Material

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I'd just like to confirm this as my Final Submission. Sadly, I didn't have time for any more tweaks, but oh well. Might as well see how it fares in the polls, though I have a lot of amazing designs to compete against. Good luck to all.

Also, thanks to Quanyails for pointing out that my original "final" was too small.

This mantis pokemon fancies herself to be an honored guest to a masquerade ball. On closer inspection, though, it has been found that the "masks" these pokemon are always found with are actually the faces of the males, torn off in a brutal ritual. The masks have strange psychic qualities, the most prominent of which involve the ability to disguise the pokemon in an illusion as any other pokemon merely by putting the mask on. Fiercely proud of these gruesome trophies, if the brittle chitinous mask is broken, the pokemon will abandon her winged gown to fly in a ferocious frenzy of vengeance. In all other situations, though, the pokemon will keep her decorative wings down to simulate a dress, which, though aiding her focus on the masquerade, hinders her ability to dodge.

CAP Head Mod

It's a magician's hatbug! Hehe. Sorry I didn't have a lot of time to work out some supporting material. You can look at my earlier draft here, which explains some of the abilities and attacks it can do. It can shoot magical dusts out of its hat hole, which can perform a variety of tasks. One of these can be a tricky gas that confuses the opponent into thinking it is a different Pokemon (Illusion). Its hat armor is also very flimsy (Weak Armor), but when taken off, the hatbug can travel very quickly without its weight.

Anatomically, it has the ability to hide its claws and glowing antennae within the recesses of its hat structure. It can also move those body parts around at will within the hat (as you can see in the WIP art).